In “Nope!” Jordan Peele, creator of, among others excellent “Run!” tries to say a lot, but ultimately leaves us with a feeling of emptiness and understatement.
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Nope! – description of the plot of the film
In fact, the less you know from the plot of Nope! The better. The film is about a horse trainer named OJ Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya) and his sister Emerald (Keke Palmer) who run their extended family business after their father Otis Sr. dies under suspicious circumstances. OJ and Emerald provide horses that take part in all kinds of photo and film sessions in the entertainment industry. At some point strange events start happening around their ranches and the clouds seem to be hiding something mysterious and dangerous in the distance.
Nope! – a love letter to the cinema or pointing out market tastes to the audience?
As I mentioned before, “Nope!” it is quite ambitious for a film about “alien invasion”. Of course, on a basic level, it can and should be perceived as old school blockbuster alien invasion / monster movie, sci-fi horror – no need to delete. Somewhere under the skin, because Peele doesn’t say it directly, it’s also a bit of a pastiche and a comedy.
Breaking through the layers, we reach the fact that “No!” is a clear love letter to cinematography. Both great shows and the beginnings of cinema and modern entertainment. You can feel the spirit of Alfred Hitchcock, M. Night Shyamalan and Steven Spielberg here. There is a mystery, a production momentum, great form, a sense of communing with the unknown, adventure, thrill – almost all the necessary components of a Hollywood show.
On the other hand, it is in “Nope!” also a thick layer of social satire, which deals with the audience’s addiction to the performance, spectacle, to being the center of attention. He also gets into the culture of voyeurism and reality TV. And between all this is a cast consisting mainly of black heroes with which Peele points out how much they were so far overlooked in the history of cinema, although they did a lot for the tenth muse. Anyway, this thread can be extended to the entire history of the United States.
Nope! this video was successful
The above-mentioned threads, unfortunately, somehow burst this film from the inside. “Nope! tries to say a lot, but ultimately says little. The references to the cinema primer turned out to be superficial.
Peele somehow contradicts himself and shoots a suicide, because on the one hand he considers himself the messiah of African Americans and representation in contemporary cinema, and meanwhile the characters in “Nope!” they are poorly and shallowly scratched. His critique of contemporary mass tastes is neither original nor extremely spectacular. Don’t expect “Nope!” scenes straight from the “Independence Day” or from the more intimate “Sixth sense”.
Of course, I am aware that now I am falling into Peele’s trap myself and accuse him of lacking a spectacle, which he is a bit ridiculous, but after all, he made a film about UFOs. The studio also promoted it as a show. You can also try to criticize the spectacle while being spectacular at a time when you promised the audience a bit.
Otherwise, we put ourselves in the role of a swagger and a pretentious artist who puts his tastes above others. To make matters worse, “Nope!” lame from the narrative side. The action moves forward at a snail’s pace, endlessly based on keeping the viewer secret and uncertain. In addition, most of the screening actually turns in place and only in the finale does it seem to take a specific step forward.
And “Nope!” explains absolutely nothing. This is one of those pissing off some movie viewers that everyone has to interpret for themselves. After the screening, you will have as many (if not more) unknowns and questions as you had at the beginning. If you watched the trailer, you will actually have the same feeling throughout the more than two-hour screening to the credits. Which tells me that Jordan Peele created “No!” as a more cinematic postulate, an empty parable and an expression of his artistic opinion than a consumable film for the viewer.
In a word – he made a movie for himself. And possibly for other filmmakers. All in all, there are more or less obvious suggestions scattered throughout the screening that “No!” it’s actually a movie about making movies. Another level of interpretation …
Read Also: Bullet Train – Tarantino meets Guy Ritchie in an economy class gangster
Nope! I rate this film very well
On the one hand, of course, I appreciate Peele’s directorial skill and his ability to create the right atmosphere and mystery. He is without a doubt a talented filmmaker, although I would not exaggerate with admiration. He is a skilled craftsman who is trying hard to smuggle in his “second days” in his works.
I also appreciate him for the fact that he tries to create original films, both in form and content, and he does it relatively well, which is a rarity in mainstream Hollywood cinema. Nevertheless, “Nope!” I was not delighted (try to pronounce this sentence quickly;).
The pace is sluggish, the plot doesn’t stick together, and it’s quite absurd, and offers no explanation of what we’re watching – a bit like it was all a strange dream. The whole thing looks good, because the photos are impressive, but they are also not able to catch the viewer’s attention during the full screening.
And besides all of that, I have an overwhelming impression that Jordan Peele is trying to repeat his amazing success of the movie “Run!”, With situations like this movie occurring once in a million times. Rather, they cannot be recreated later. So I’d love to see some of his non-WTF-horror / thriller movies at last. Sometimes too much experimentation doesn’t turn out to be good either.
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